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PW: And at that point in time in the '50s, did the family grow in terms of, you had siblings, your parents had more children?

PY: My sister Kathy was born three years after myself, and then my sister Carol was born seven years after Kathy. Then my uncle Pete and my aunt Joy, my dad's younger brother, Uncle Peter, they had five kids, so I had a lot of cousins and that's why we spent more time with the Yamazakis. And John and Fumi, they also had three children. So Jimmy was younger and Teri was in Michigan. So for a young person, cousins were the gravitational point of family, at least for me it was. And so there were no, really cousins of my age on the Hirashiki side. My mom's mom just made the best inarizushi. So whenever we went to visit, one of the high points was I knew there would be this big platter of inarizushi waiting for us. My grandfather Hirashiki was very quiet. He used to play a lot of go with one of the tenants, boarders, which, at least from a kid's point of view, seemed more interested in playing that go game than the fact that these noisy grandchildren were there.

PW: I'm not surprised. And what about just, it sounds like you were doing gatherings regularly, either your mom's side or your dad's side. So were you still going to the same church? Was that also a regular part of your childhood?

PY: No. My dad, being a preacher's kid, had his belly full. And also, at that time, transitioned out of academic, he thought the institutional racism was going to be a real issue and problem. And so he thought being a practicing pediatrician would be more stable. And there was obviously a need in postwar Los Angeles. So he opened an office on Crenshaw and Olympic, staffed all by the Niseis or the oldest of the Sanseis were nurses and secretaries, great group.

PW: What year was this that he opened the private practice?

PY: It must have been around '55.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.